WEBVTT - Walter Iooss Jr., Reflections on Michael Jordan, Tiger & more. 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:07.920 On the right side closet light Lucky Lucky drawing in 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:18.360 the zine h Clark Joe Montanna rolls right, he throws 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:20.920 it past to Only one person in the whole stand 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:25.880 could catch the fingertips of Dwight Clark. Some players coming 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.040 out with the right corner of my eye and just 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:43.879 it's it to catch put another log FID. Nobody here 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:52.879 is getting time. This is the Firepit hosted by Matt Janella. 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.920 Where some might say Walter Yose is the Michael Jordan 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.640 of sports photograph fee, It's actually more accurate to say 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:07.720 Michael Jordan's is the Walter Yose of basketball. Yos has 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:11.920 been taking pictures professionally for fifty nine years. He has 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:16.360 shot every Super Bowl. He has over three covers of 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:23.240 Sports Illustrated, which includes action, portrait and Swimsuit. His versatility, personality, 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:27.280 and talent, along with the trust and respect of his subjects, 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.080 plus his passion for sports and his craft, have earned 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.400 him a spot in the International Hall of Fame of Photography. 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.640 I've done several stories on Yos through the years. I 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.440 was lucky enough to edit some of his images. I 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.920 carried cameras for him at a Super Bowl I've played 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.600 golf with him and his two home courses, mon Talk 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.080 Downs on Long Island and Crandon Park on Key Biscaine. 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:57.320 His swing, like his iconic career, is one long exposure. 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.920 Today he tells the story of chasing Tiger to recreate Peskin, 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:09.440 almost botching a portrait session with Jack and Arnie, arguably 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:13.680 the most famous image in NFL history, and he shares 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:18.680 several stories about a special relationship with MJ to offer 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.760 some perspective and insight into the photographer and the man 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:26.639 we've called upon. Neil Lifer Yos's counterparted Sports Illustrated, going 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.359 back to when they were teenagers, where Lifer has Ali 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:37.799 over Liston Yos has Dwight Clark over Everson Wolves. Walter 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:43.880 and I were fanatical about covering every big event we 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.119 could cover, and each one of us, like I say, 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.160 wanted You wanted to get to cover of the magazine, 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.840 which essentially was the gold medal. Uh. You wanted to 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.320 get the opening spread in the magazine, which was always 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.120 a big picture, and unlike I think most of the 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.800 other guys, Walter I wanted to get both every time. 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.200 The other voice you'll hear throughout is Christian Yos the 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:11.279 oldest of Eva and Walter's two sons. Christian is a photographer, 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.560 a photo editor, and is currently the executive producer of 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.720 video at Discovery Golf. You know, they're always talked about 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.440 this Yos luck and I've never said that it's luck. 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.040 I mean, this is a guy that has grown up 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.320 obsessed with sports. You know, he was a great athlete 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.280 in his own right. Um, And it's just fascinated with 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.320 the game and the movement and knowing where to be 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:35.920 and with the plays that are going to happen. Come 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:40.280 from like this life of just living sports. Um. And 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.800 I've always attested his luck to just knowledge, you know, 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.840 like that's it. I mean, has there been some luck involved, probably, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:48.920 but you know, no one where to be on the field, 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:50.720 and no one which way a ball is. You know 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.000 a throw is going to go. Is comes from a 0:03:54.120 --> 0:04:00.040 life of just obsessed with sports. Born in nine, Walter A. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.280 Yos Jr. Grew up in East Orange, New Jersey, the 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.440 son of a decorated jazz musician and the grandson of 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:12.440 Nimble Fingers, a ragtime piano player, and, as Walter puts it, 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:17.320 the pride of Brooklyn. I'd see my father on Sunday, 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.240 and as a musician, a lot of musicians life photography, 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.560 and that was his hobby throughout his life. And he 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:29.360 got me interested, and we went to a New York 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:34.039 Giants football game in n bought season tickets, and he 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:39.880 bought a F four tackym or lens and the Sahi 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.760 Pentax camera on the Upper West Side where all the 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.960 camera stores were back in the fifties, and he used 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:47.320 to go on there. I'd go in with him and 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.640 you know, talk cameras by didn't know. So a six 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.760 game season, then at home, you know, twelve game regular season, 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:59.440 so a game four, I finally got the nerve to 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.960 take this hammer. You know, fans were hitting their heads 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:04.360 banging into it, and I said, I didn't want any 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.800 part of this. I don't like confrontation like that. And 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:12.760 I shot, you know, ten pictures or something. We went back. 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.200 He started where my home was, process that role of 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.440 film and held it up to the light. As my 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.400 former managing editor Terry McDonald said, my future was unlocked. 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.560 While in high school and if he wasn't playing stickball 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.200 or football in the streets, Yose attended the Germaine School 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.440 of Photography in New York and then I graduated me 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.200 starr Inch High School, and you know, late June, and 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.919 on July six, I got called from my first assignment 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.600 and was paid a hundred dollars. I mean that's a 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:50.640 lot of money. And they want to go to football games. Okay, 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.720 we want to go to the giant game on the sidelines. Really, 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.560 And then I get back to my friends. They're paying 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:04.200 to go on the sidelines and take pictures. You're like 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.960 a thief. I mean, who wouldn't want to do this. 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.560 I mean we're all children at that point, just a 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.040 kid in a man's world. Young Yosts called Sports Illustrated 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.720 and convinced George blood Good, the magazine's deputy picture of 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.800 her at the time, to review his portfolio. Blood Good 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.159 agreed to provide Young Yos with film and processing for 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:30.920 select assignments. He sent me to Buffalo, like nine sixty two. 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.680 So this is when I started. It's the first plane 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.960 I ever took. Remember getting air sick on the plane. 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.600 I was a nervous wreck. And I went to Buffalo 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:46.960 and shot Boston versus Buffalo the American Football League. And 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.000 there was a running back on Buffalo. His name was 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:55.920 Albert Golden Wheels Dubini and he ran a kickoff back 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.760 a hundred and five yards and I had the whole sequence. 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.920 And apparently during the meeting with the manage entitor, Andre Laguerre, 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.920 he said, who took these pictures? He says, Oh, that's 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:15.679 my guy, Walter Ryos, And then I was in the lineup. 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.640 Never know Golden Wheels do Benny and did it for me. 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.080 Yos would ride the heels of Golden Wheels to the 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:29.440 arm of Johnny You. I got my first pass to 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:35.040 go to Baltimore in San Francisco in Baltimore game a 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:39.560 Memorial Stadium. I guess I'm eighteen. With a minute left 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.760 in the game, United strows his past to Jimmy Yord 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.360 and he makes his bobbling catch with his pinkie down 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.520 in one frame with a back up and shoot it 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.160 and on the train like and everyone's onm me. You 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.160 get that picture, kid, I said, I don't think so, 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.760 you know, oh, how can you miss it? Like you 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.880 get home and you develop it and it's a shark. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.920 There's any picture I've ever taken. And that was my 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.960 first action shot. Back in the sixties, there was no 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:16.240 such thing as auto focus Neo Lifer remembers the ore 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.600 image and Walter did this beautiful picture just as the 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.280 ball is going in his hands. I know how hard 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.080 that is to do. If you did that once or 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:30.000 twice a season, that was you had a pretty good season. 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:32.640 It was easy to get a running back going through 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.840 the line, or getting the quarterback getting sacked, but to 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.200 get a receiver running at you or away from you, 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.240 or whichever thing and get the ball just Walter did 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.960 that all the time. Proper focus is only one of 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.920 the key ingredients to a memorable image. The picture is 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:55.360 sort of simple to me a good background, good life, 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.000 and then make something good happen in front of it. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.680 Because if your background stinks, you've got a bad picture. 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.320 I mean, you've edited my picture. I'm possessed with backgrounds. 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.560 To me, it starts with where am I shooting this person. 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.480 I can make the light happen, but it has to 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:17.920 start with that. And you think of like great photographers 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:21.600 use up every millimeter of the frame perfectly. And the 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.800 greatest is Jim Knockway. He never crops a picture. Every 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:30.280 speck in that picture is there for a reason, and 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.960 that's what a great picture gives you. As the golf 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.880 photo entered Sports Illustrated, I would try to hire Yos 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.880 to shoot the majors. He had no interest. He had 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:46.680 hoofted around enough courses, covering legends like Palmer, Nicholas, Player 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:51.160 and Watson. But then a long came, a kid named Woods. 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.280 The first time I photographed Tiger, it was two thousand. 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.600 I wanted to recreate the famous Ben Hogan one iron 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:03.400 shot that high Peskin took. So I went out with 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.840 a speed graphic camera, four by five camera with my 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.280 assistant Tom and the chum bucket where you take peel 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.480 up the polaroids. Well, the problem with that cameras you 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.839 have to get close because it's sort of a wide angle, 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.760 normal lens. You never met Tiger. You didn't introduce yourself, 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:22.240 You didn't try to tell him what you were trying 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.040 to do. You didn't he didn't know who you were. No, 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.280 you didn'tmont talked to me. I can be aggressive this way, 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.120 and you know golfers hate for Tiger. Was getting too 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.720 close to him, and there's one spot they really detest 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.800 behind him. So I'm I'm around him. I don't know 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:43.640 what hole around maybe sixty. He's already I can see 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.400 him getting a cheat. I said to my assistant Tom, 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.400 let's get out of here. Let's go. Let's go over 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.920 on the fairway, put on your sunglasses. So as we're 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.920 standing there, and I must have been ten fifteen feet 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.880 behind him, and I could Steve Steve Williams is they're 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.839 talking like, oh ship, Steve sauncers over and he goes, 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.880 excuse me, Mike, have you ever covered of golf tournament before? 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:11.679 I said, oh, yes, sir, and so I continued my 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.880 relentless pursuit of Tiger with wide angle lens. Is I 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.720 was in his nostrils. I've been trying to have so 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:23.199 many golf tournaments. That's why I told my sister. I said, no, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.360 time we get the shot and we get thrown out, 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:30.000 who gives a crap? Throw me out? I'd be happy. 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.440 Two months later, Sports Illustrated signs me to do a 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:42.320 cover of Tiger at Ailesworth, the one in the Adirondack chair. 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:46.480 So we go to Lake Windermere and put him in 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:50.000 the Adirondack chair. And now I'm being introduced to Tiger, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.160 and I mean great admirer of obviously, I said Tiger 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.520 on Walter Yos. I said, you know, I covered you 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:58.680 with LaCosta. I don't know if you've noticed me, he says, 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:05.000 every whole bingo. But we kept became friends after the 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:10.079 photograph for Nike. I photographed him for Golf Digus in December, 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.960 and uh, you know, we go back twenty years and 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:18.679 it's really a nice relationship. Walter always seems to get 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:23.000 what he's looking for, creates the image he envisions, which 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.480 isn't to say there have been some hiccups. Christian Yos 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:33.080 explains he shows up a daily to shoot a portrait 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.400 of Jack Nicholas and Oura Palmer and I was there 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.160 and he didn't show and I was like, oh my god, 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:43.959 you know what am I gonna do? You know, it's 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.840 freaking Jack and Arnie and you know there's agents involved. 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.400 And I'm in mont Talk and Christian Colton he says, 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.360 where are you? I said, my mom Talk. He says, 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:58.960 the shoots today. I said what? So I flee out 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:04.040 of there. I drive down to Philly. You know, I'm 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:08.839 like a day late. So I get to the press 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:13.959 tentp and I see Jack. I find Jack. Will you 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.839 do it today? Okay? After a munch, no problem. Arnie 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.800 had just left. It was raining that day. He left 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:25.000 the pudding green and I said, whoever the running the 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.320 press desk? I said, you have to get me in 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:29.560 touch with the Arnold so I can't. I can't give 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.160 you any numbers. I said, please, this is I'll dial 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.920 is home number for you. Rings and rings and rings 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.520 and rings, and just let it hang up. He goes hello, 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:45.040 I said, Arnold. Hey, it's Walter Goes. I said, I'm 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.480 sorry being a day late. I said, and you possibly 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:53.600 do it today. Yeah, sure, I'll come over. And I 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:58.600 brought the two them into this hotel room impose them together. 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.000 This was special it. But with the end of the 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.280 day I walk out of here. You know, it was 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.640 at a golf course and the most famous golfers of 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:11.120 all time being together. And this woman goes up to 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.800 her husband because you're not gonna believe her. I just saw. 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.079 I just saw Arnie and Jack. He said, I was 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:24.320 stop it, and he walked out. Did you ever have 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.640 the sense that between Jack and Arnie they knew what 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:30.000 they were doing, they knew they needed each other. That's 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.920 what makes sports great. You know, you need somebody out there. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.640 If Jack, we're all alone out there I'm sorry. Jack 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:41.680 was Jack, and then Arnie the most personable, charming, charismatic 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.880 one of them, right up there with Alli of all time, 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:50.720 run around hat list, the cigarette, the swagger, Arnie's armies, 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:55.000 all the women, the men. Everyone wanted to be with Arnie. 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.160 I mean, he's one of the great people I've ever met. 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.520 And you know the picture of them at the table, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.520 I took him sixty five Arnie and Jack. There's three 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:10.320 signed images by both of them and myself. I gave 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.440 one to Jack, gave one to Arnie, and I have one. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.920 And the last time I went to Latrobe and went 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:22.960 down the staircase downstairs, that picture was on the wall. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:30.720 It was like hamnt a lot, Arnie, Jack and Tiger. 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.080 That was obviously Yoss, big three in golf. But I 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:38.280 asked him for his three most memorable images Slam Dunk 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.720 at eight in Chicago, the Blue Dunk in eighties seven Mile, Illinois, 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:51.160 and January two, Dwight Clark's catch the story with the catches. 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.000 In July, I was up by sports illustrator to spend 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:59.560 the season with the Cowboys, So I started in Thousand Oaks, California. 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.440 Every game I'm with, I'm in with the team. It's 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.680 like family. Now. I've seen all kinds of things you 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.760 would even imagine. I'm not gonna talk about in the 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.720 locker room. Give us, give us something, give us something 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.840 you saw because you're embedded with This is Tom Landry. 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:18.840 I'm gonna, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you one thing. 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:25.120 This is Tom Landry Tom Lantry. Basically he said alone 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.560 on me once and we never said another word for 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.920 the entire season. You couldn't have cared less if I 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.360 was in there, but I was, and that was it. 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:38.520 I you know what, I'm not gonna talk to him. 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.080 I posed him once on the field with the gil 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:47.120 Brand and the other owners. That was it. Stayed away 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:51.520 from you stayed away from people like Landry or Lombardi. 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:56.600 Stay away. So there was a player on the team 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.360 and this was like week two, and you know, you 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.400 start with a team, you stay back. You don't start 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.440 putting your camera and pay people's faces. And this guy 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:08.080 comes up with me, does I want to take a picture. 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:09.640 I want you to take a picture of me being 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:15.400 shot up? You know, I look around. Okay, they're testing me. 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:17.920 I said, why would you want me to do that? 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:20.240 He says, so I can give it to my son 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.679 so he never plays pro football. I still do it 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:29.920 on one condition, I'll give you the role of film. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.199 So I wanted the trainer's room. You got shot up. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:36.400 I shot it, and I gave him a roll of film, 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.320 and he became my best friend on the team. I'm 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.879 not mentioning any names. So we go to San Francisco 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:48.000 and you know, teams passing out these energy bill black 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:52.000 take breaks down, lack take acid. I mean everyone's taking 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:56.120 pr guys, give me six of those things. Almost took 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.840 the field. I was so wired up my games going 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.000 for you. Well, you know, next game is the Super Bowl. 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.040 And then with what fifty eight seconds left in the game, 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:20.000 Joe Montana rolls right lucky lucky, drawing an anzine WHI 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.920 throws it pass to only one person the whole stand 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:28.560 could catch the fingertips of Dwight Clark, a moment that 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.600 reversed the course for not only Dwayne Clark, but for 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.240 the forty Niners franchise and for a season long project 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.359 on the Cowboys. So I pressed Jos for more details 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:41.480 as to why he was ready with the short legs 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:46.280 sports lustrand the cover either the year before Dave Logan 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.040 Cleveland making it one hand and catch on the sidelines, 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:55.919 and when Montana roll right, I was with a zoom, 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:59.639 like a zoom, I have that picture, big lenses down 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.840 and I got the fifty ready and I shoot the 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.320 sequence of the past and I dropped it and I'm 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:11.199 pre focused, like twelve ft so i just picked up 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:15.720 the camera and I see some players coming out with 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:19.680 the right corner of my eye and he just it's 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:24.639 it just to catch. It's like, that's all the same chance. 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:29.399 Favors were prepared, man, So you know I was thinking ahead. 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.480 You just never expected a play of that significance to happen. 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:39.600 But that's why you gotta be ready. And the season 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:42.840 is over and it's like, I mean, catch didn't exist 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:47.520 at that point. This was just a touchdown. And I 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:53.320 went into the locker room, the single saddest place I've 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.879 ever been outside a funeral of personal friends. The silence 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:01.040 was definite, as they say, And that was it for 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:05.200 the season, and the magazine ran all of John Underwood's 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.440 texting almost none of my pictures, which really pissed me off. 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.080 But that cover came out next week, which I didn't 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.080 even know I was on the road again called the catch. 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.439 So suddenly, over you know, forty years, this has become 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.920 arguably the most famous picture in Propobal history. And oddly 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:32.280 enough I never met Dwight Clark, but we were always 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.440 connected by a five of a second, and you know, 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:44.480 obviously I'm happy I took that picture. Now for more 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.840 on this memorable moment, once again we hear from Lifer 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.639 and Christian Yos the catch. I like to say, what 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:57.080 separates the average sports attag from the truly great ones 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.520 is there so much luck involved in sports. She got 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:04.000 to be in the right position. The catch happened right 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.560 in front of Walter. It could have happened that the 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.119 other corner of the end zone, and you're not in 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.480 the position. What separates the really great ones from the 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.680 ordinary photographers is when you're in the right position, you 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:20.800 don't miss. And Walter was clearly in the lucky seat 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:24.200 and he didn't miss. My favorite party in My favorite 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:26.520 antidote about the catch is not so much like what 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:28.919 went into it, what happened. My favorite part of this 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:31.560 at some point, like when you watch the footage, the 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:34.720 camera you know hands and follows Dwight Cark and that 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:36.800 it goes up and when you look in the background 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:39.320 at all the photographers and media and they're all like 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.320 looking in amazement about what's happening, and there's one guy 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.560 with a camera up to his face and it's my dad. 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:55.119 Jose's greatness is not just capturing an image, it's also conceptualizing. Walter, 0:21:55.280 --> 0:22:01.600 let you go to Chicago and shoot Michael Jordan's So 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.160 they sent me to lys Illinois had a kid's camp 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:09.040 and his brother was there. I did some portraits of him, 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.920 and I had the idea for the Shadow of the Dunk. 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:15.720 Did you know him at that time? No, I never meant, 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:18.360 but he was so charming as you can see from 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:22.439 t V. I mean, there is no doubt, no doubt 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.960 who the greatest, coolest, most dominating, meanest basketball player was 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.920 at all time. No one more beautiful than Michael. I'm Jesus. 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:37.639 So there was a huge parking lot at this school 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.280 of college or something. So I painted one section read 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:44.600 not me. I had someone to it in another section 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:48.960 blue because I wasn't sure which uniform he was gonna 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:52.240 show up. And if he sho showed up him the 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:55.680 white uniform, we would have come with a red. Then 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:58.119 I go out Up says you can't have a stationary 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.399 basket to create the up for shadow line and angle. 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.119 I brought in a basket I called the NBA. I 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:07.639 called someone in Chicago. The only place I could get 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.720 an NBA basket was trucked in from St. Louis. Back 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:14.680 in those days. Who cared about money. So a guy 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:18.760 trucked in an NBA basket which you could lower and 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:22.080 then said it any angle so you get shadow in 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:25.959 the right spot. Then you have to do it as 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:29.320 a specific time of the day. It can't be too 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.840 early or too late. Their clouds. You've got a problem. 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:36.760 So Michael comes out and his red we go blue. 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:41.040 I go up the cherry picker. Maybe there's ten dunks 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:47.560 and the blue dunk came to be. You painted the 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:51.000 asphalt and depart from that. Did you have to repaint 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:57.679 it afterwards? You just hell no, I left town. I 0:23:57.720 --> 0:24:02.800 got out of this bast like good again. As Christian 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:06.200 Jose explains as it relates to m J and other megastars, 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:11.080 timing is always a factor. Think about like my dad's 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:14.800 career and it you know, like there's this roller coaster 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:17.600 peak and think about the athletes that he had access to, 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:22.360 you know, Michael Tiger, Montana, Ripken, Kobe Slater. I mean, 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:24.800 here's a guy who's really good at what he does 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:30.560 and has access to incredible athletes pre Internet age, right, 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:33.920 So they need the media, you know, like magazines and 0:24:34.000 --> 0:24:38.480 newspapers and TV are important, and you know, like here's 0:24:38.480 --> 0:24:41.399 a guy, here's a photographer who they can request. I mean, Cheater, 0:24:41.560 --> 0:24:43.480 you name it. I mean they wanted to work with 0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:45.680 him because they trusted him, and they know that they 0:24:45.680 --> 0:24:48.960 needed their name. The pictures uh in these media outlets 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:53.399 and um kind of frtuitous timing on some of it. 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:57.080 The slam dunk contest in the late eighties mattered thanks 0:24:57.080 --> 0:25:01.080 in large part the little guys like Spud Webb. Then 0:25:01.119 --> 0:25:06.120 there's Clyde the Glide, Drexler, the Human Highlight Film, Dominique Wilkins, 0:25:07.040 --> 0:25:12.760 and in in Chicago Michael air Jordan's was the defending champion. 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:17.840 Yet again, Yes, had a plan. I got the slam 0:25:17.920 --> 0:25:21.639 dunk causes in eight seven Seattle and lit it theatrical. 0:25:22.000 --> 0:25:25.240 That's some nice pictures, but I understood if you can't 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:29.040 see the player's face, the dunk doesn't matter. And guys 0:25:29.040 --> 0:25:32.040 coming backwards and dunk. So I either asked Michael the 0:25:32.160 --> 0:25:34.760 gummest or smartest question, since I said, you can always 0:25:34.800 --> 0:25:39.600 get no. He's sitting there before the game, and I'm 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:42.199 there like a four hour before because I've strokes like 0:25:42.280 --> 0:25:48.359 the arena. I say, Michaels Walters. He said a little cold, 0:25:49.520 --> 0:25:53.320 I said, Michael. I explained the situation about Seattle, and 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:54.960 I said, well, is there anyone you could tell me 0:25:55.000 --> 0:26:00.399 which way you're gonna take off from? He looks out 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:03.240 of him. He goes sure, And I said, well, how 0:26:03.240 --> 0:26:05.679 are you gonna do that? He says, I'll put my 0:26:05.760 --> 0:26:09.080 finger down on my knee and I'll point. I said, 0:26:09.119 --> 0:26:12.320 you can remember this, He says, watch me, because everything 0:26:12.359 --> 0:26:17.080 is a game. Here's the story. Wilkins finishays with a h. 0:26:18.400 --> 0:26:23.560 Michael Jordan's needs a forty in to tie forty nine 0:26:24.320 --> 0:26:28.000 to win creativity and imagine ation to the key rust. 0:26:28.040 --> 0:26:32.480 He's gotta make the dunk to look over the bench finger. Okay, 0:26:32.480 --> 0:26:35.080 I'm moving to the right side. So it comes down 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:38.920 to the last two dunks. One that proceeded mine, which 0:26:38.960 --> 0:26:42.800 looked like slammed up. So the next to last dunk, 0:26:43.400 --> 0:26:46.480 I'm right at the Stanton, I'm like close up like 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:49.359 that at the hustle blout of the super Wide. He 0:26:49.480 --> 0:26:52.920